High-tech, secure and sustainably packed in wood – Holzkirchen geothermal plant

Following a recent award for its sustainability the geothermal plant of Holzkirchen in Bavaria/ Germany has bagged another award, so local publication Merkur.

We recently reported on the plant being nominated for the Rosenheimer Timber Construction award and now it is official. The plant is the winner of this year.

“Plenty of wood was used in the plant and successfully demonstrated that an industrial plant can also be designed to be close to nature,” so the local authorities. A total of 382 cubic meters of wood were used for the machine house, the operating building and the heat center, mainly in the structure and the facades.

“This type of construction is not harmful to the environment, on the contrary, it is important for the climate.” Because with every meter of wood used for construction, a ton of CO2 is bound over the lifespan. The built-in quantity grows again – in purely mathematical terms – in a forest the size of the market town of Holzkirchen in eleven days. Since wood is considered the raw material of the Oberland region anyway, this sustainable construction also strengthens the regional economy.

The Rosenheim Timber Construction Prize is awarded by the Rosenheim District Association, a working group made up of architects from various departments and artists. Its members want to raise awareness of high-quality architecture and high-quality wooden buildings.

With 91 submitted building objects, there was a record number of participants for the competition this year. Prizes were awarded in various categories, with the architectural firm Ferdinand and Gerth commissioned by the Holzkirchen municipal works winning the “Audience Award” category. In this category, the participants could only vote online.

Albert Götz, Managing Director of the municipal works, is pleased about the award: “There was a very lively participation in the public vote, and we are very pleased that our system and its construction apparently find a high level of acceptance among the people in the region.” He would like to thank the architecture office, the IFT office for structural engineering and last but not least the carpentry Stoib from Warngau. All of them “had an excellent job”. Götz also sends a big thank you to the Holzkirchner town councilor Robert Wiechmann (Green Party), who contributed his high level of expertise as a forest engineer to the competition.

Source: Merkur